Prairie Waters Potable Reuse System

Aurora, Colorado

To meet the water needs for the city of Aurora, Kiewit subsidiary, Western Summit, constructed this advanced water purification facility that increased water supply in the West by 20 percent, or 3.3 billion gallons per year, enough water to supply 20,000 families for one year. As one of the most sustainable water supply systems in the West, Prairie Water uses water from the South Platte River, naturally purifying it using a unique process that creates no waste to discharge. The facility uses softening, advanced ultraviolet oxidation, filtration and granulized activated carbon absorption.

The water facility treats up to 50 million gallons of water per day and then it is blended with flow from the nearby Aurora Reservoir to control the concentration of total dissolved solids in the finished water. The plant is supported by more than 39,000 linear feet of piping, ranging in size from 4 to 72 inches in diameter, and buried up to 45 feet deep. Two 1,800-kilovolt standby diesel engine generators were also installed.

Western Summit also simultaneously constructed three separate pump stations along a pipeline that carries the water from the South Platte River to the pump stations located in Brighton, Commerce City and Aurora. The pump stations lift the water almost 1,000 feet so it can make its way over a ridge and ultimately to the Binney Water Purification Facility. The work included a 6-miligram and two 1.5-miligram post-tensioned water storage tanks. The pumps provide initial capacity of one 650-horsepower, 7.5-million-gallons-per-day pump and one 1,200-horsepower, 12.5-million-gallons-per-day pump with piping for future additional pumps at each station to provide the ultimate capacity of 50 million gallons per day.